Powering partnerships on the Western Slope
The 2025 CU Presidential Outreach Tour concluded last week with a visit to Colorado’s Western Slope, where President Todd Saliman, Regent Ray Scott and system administration leaders visited Mesa and Montrose counties. The tour capped off CU’s summer effort to strengthen relationships with communities across the state, demonstrating how CU is for all of Colorado.
Over two days, CU leadership engaged with K-12 educators, higher education partners, nonprofit organizations, business leaders and local residents in Grand Junction and Montrose. From classrooms and career pathways to business roundtables and community events, the tour highlighted CU’s impact and its ongoing commitment to affordability, access and opportunity.
“At the University of Colorado, we know there is a place at one of our four campuses for every student from the Western Slope who wants to pursue a degree,” said CU President Todd Saliman. “We’re focused on ensuring that cost and culture are never a barrier to anyone looking for their educational path to success. Our visit this summer – and our ongoing work with community leaders – are all about growing our existing partnerships and exploring new ways we can align with community-identified needs.”
Beginning in Grand Junction, the tour stopped at the new Grand Junction High School, boasting a $144.5 million facility completed in 2024 through a bond measure approved by Mesa County voters.
Other events throughout the day included an outdoor recreation manufacturing roundtable, where industry leaders heard a presentation on CU Denver’s Outside Lab and discussed ways CU can better support the region’s growing outdoor sector. The conversation focused on partnership and innovation, with Colorado Mesa University representatives also taking part to highlight the collaborative nature of the effort.
“I want to make sure that CU is connected to Colorado and that we’re doing things that are relevant for our state,” Saliman said. “What I see in meetings like that is that the answer is that we are.”
To conclude the first day, CU leaders visited Colorado Mesa University to tour the CU Boulder/Colorado Mesa University Engineering Partnership Program. Established in 2008 as one of CU’s first-of-its-kind collaborations, the program allows students to complete their first two years at CMU before finishing their engineering coursework with CU Boulder faculty who live and teach on the Western Slope.
At Montrose High School, CU leaders learned how the district’s Career and College Readiness Program is preparing students for the future while opening doors to higher education. Designed for grades 6-12, the program blends hands-on learning through career pathways, technical education and concurrent enrollment, allowing students to earn college credit and industry credentials at no cost.
The visit focused on strengthening CU’s partnership with the district by expanding concurrent enrollment opportunities that prepare students to become future teachers, ultimately creating a direct pipeline into Montrose’s Teaching and Learning Academy model.
The tour also featured a business roundtable discussion in Montrose, where CU leadership sat down with local business owners and civic leaders to explore the community’s future economic needs. The conversation centered on building stronger partnerships between higher education and industry, with CU highlighting opportunities for collaboration through its three business schools, internships, capstone projects and applied research.
“It’s through those kinds of partnerships where we can provide added value to the business community or to families or to students,” Saliman said. That’s what we’re all about.”
The tour concluded with CU Community Info Night in Montrose, where residents connected directly with admissions and scholarship experts from CU Boulder, UCCS, CU Denver and CU Anschutz. The event highlighted CU’s affordability initiatives, including CU Promise and the Boulder Tuition Guarantee, as well as the CU/CMU engineering partnership.
“In Colorado, it’s affordable,” Saliman said. “There are ways to go to college in Colorado. People need to pursue post-secondary education. We’re making it easier to transfer credits. We have lots of financial aid options. We’re making it cheaper to go to college and people need to check it out.”